in 1857, estimated that the value of the fish brought into Calcutta amounted to about £200 daily. Most of the rivers are infested by alligators. Snakes of all kinds abound,—the boa constrictor, cobra, kuriát, gosáp, and tree and water snakes.
No statistics exist of the yearly cost of keeping down wild beasts. The proprietors of Sundarban lots regularly employ hunters (shikárís) on their estates, but few applications are received for the payment of Government rewards for their destruction. The Collector states that the average Government expenditure for this purpose is about £17 a year. No rewards have ever been given for snake-killing, although the loss of life caused by them is considerably greater than that by wild beasts. For the three years ending 1869-70, 40 persons a year were killed by wild beasts, and 252 by snake bites. There is no regular trade in wild-beast skins, though shikárís occasionally sell deer and tiger skins; and, with the exception of the fisheries, the feraæ naturaæ are not made to contribute in any way towards the wealth of the District.
Population.—Several attempts have been made to arrive at a correct enumeration of the people. The first appears to have been in 1822, when the population of the 24 Parganás, as then constituted, was estimated at 599,595 souls. In a memorandum appended to the Police Report of Mr. Henry Shakespeare, Superintendent of Police in the Lower Provinces, in 1822, the area of the District is given as 3610 square miles, which doubtless included a part of the Sundarbans.
Another attempt was made at the time of the Revenue Survey in 1856. The area of the District was given at 2246.079 square miles, exclusive of the Sundarbans; and the population was returned at 947,204, exclusive of Calcutta and its suburbs, which were separately returned at 614,896. The number of male adults was stated at 350,466; female adults, 312,578; male children, 161,026; female children, 123,134: total, 947,204. The number of brick or masonry houses was returned to be 5768, and the number of mud or bamboo huts at 169,491. The general average gave 421 inhabitants per square mile, and 5.4 for each house, exclusive of the city and its suburbs. Major Smyth’s Report, from which these figures are taken, does not state how the total number of inhabitants was arrived at, nor what means, if any, were taken to check the returns.
Since these calculations, the police limits of the District were
